False Dawn in the Land of Elton John

The question last week at Old Trafford was whether Manchester United played in crisis mode and failed to capitalize on their superiority or whether Spurs are finally worthy of being called title contenders.  The answer to that question exists in the consequent games at Watford, and after next weeks international break, the Wembley date with Liverpool.

Elton John looked on and was the happiest man at the final whistle in Vicarage Road, as Watford continued their amazing 100% winning record to the start of the new premier league season with 4 wins out of 4.   That is not something that Tottenham have accomplished in near 100 years. 

Elton John has had a long love for Watford football club but even with his name on one of the stands at the ground, I doubt that he expected Watford to win against a team they have never beaten in the Premier League era.  For Spurs it would on paper be the perfect momentum builder game after the big win against Manchester United last week.

Mauricio Pochettino was not confident that his Tottenham team had their feet on the ground after the 3-0 away win in Manchester and he warned his players not to take Watford lightly.   In the first half Tottenham missed the few chances they had but were generally in charge of the game.

When Watford gave Tottenham a gift with an own-goal, Sir Elton John must have resigned himself to watch another losing display against Tottenham, but to his delight and joy, Watford began to press to Tottenham, after having affording them far too much respect earlier in the game.  In the end Watford showed something that this Tottenham team has only shown in short spurts, which is absolute character.

There was no giving up for the Watford players and their conviction led to Spurs sudden descent into very poor play.  Mousa Dembele who is normally the most reliable of Tottenham players had one of his rare off days - and his needless foul that earned him a yellow card, also gave Watford their set play opportunity.  Troy Deanie did not need a second chance as he headed the resulting free-kick into the Tottenham net, reminiscent of Harry Kane's header last week.

Harry Kane for some reason has been relegated to a supporting role, with Lucas Moura being allowed to play higher up the field.  That is no way for Harry Kane to keep up with the leading goalscorer tallies.  Moura may have scored three goals in the first three games but he like the rest of the Tottenham team did not look like they were going to score. 

To have Watford mess up so badly and give away a very sloppy goal scored by one of their own players, should have been the signal for Tottenham to lock up shop and freeze Watford out of the game.  Yet Mauricio Pochettino does not have the guile of a Jose Mourinho who knows how to close a game out and win the points . Two second half goals gave the Tottenham players a reality check that their manager warned them about.

Yet maybe Mauricio Pochettino's decision to lower expectations by issuing a complacency warning actually helped the Tottenham team to be complacent.  The Pochettino system requires absolute physical effort and so giving the Tottenham players a warning not to be complacent may have had the opposite effect that the Tottenham manager hoped for.

Next week Manchester United face Watford and while pundits want to write a story about crisis at Old Trafford, I fully expect Watford to be put to the sword by a more defiant and resolute United.  As United beat Burnley with only 10 men at Turf Moor, Tottenham blew up in a way that critics of Tottenham call "being Spursy". 

Tottenham fans like me have seen this before and whether it was smart for the Tottenham manager to dwell on this facet of Tottenham's tendency remains to be seen, because now the forthcoming Liverpool game puts Tottenham players in what is a MUST WIN game for them, just as Manchester United faced a MUST WIN game against Tottenham last week.

In that response in 2 weeks time at Wembley Stadium will answer a few more questions about the viability and sustainability of a title challenge.  It was clearly another false dawn for Tottenham fans to see the team lose their defensive cohesion and panic at incoming crosses.  Liverpool will take note of this tendency and the fearsome front four of Liverpool are sure to test this psychologically weak aspect of Tottenham's play.

While many were citing Watford's easy opposition for their winning start, Tottenham was not easy opposition and the only blame that can be leveled at Watford today is that early on, they played into Tottenham's hands by trying to out-football the Spurs side.  Tottenham have better ball players and squad quality, but Watford's game this year has had a tenacious quality.  That quality returned as the bullied Spurs out of the game.

Character is a fine thing to see.  it is the kind of thing currently missing at West Ham United, who this week succumbed to their fourth loss of the year.  In a few weeks Tottenham go to West Ham and the Hammers no matter how badly they have played, really do like lifting their games against Tottenham - and in the past have beaten Spurs.  So while today's game against Watford proved a false dawn in terms of the title challenge.  Let's see what they now do in the next game against a very well organized and talented Liverpool team.

If Sir Elton John had a song for this particular Spurs performance, he would give Tottenham fans his song "Sad Songs" :